About CricketDiane –

I’ve been creating nearly every day since I was a kid and that is over 50 years. I’ve created in numerous ways in a range that moves from art to problem-solving to inventing, creating music, sculpting and painting to writing and doing various computer / online based projects.

“It is better to make the effort to move forward and release the flow of ideas to work with them and do things creatively, create things and invent and write and make – I definitely know that by experience.” – cricketdiane, 2018

Well, obviously the answer is none, because mechanics are commonly called “artists”, chefs are called “artists” and the other day, I think it was a politician that a journalist noted is really an “artist” of politics. Anything can be called art until you are the one doing it – then nothing you do can be considered art.

And, never assume that any art or design at all needs to be created for the term “artist” to be bestowed upon someone or something – as long as they are not actually creating art.

It is also, neither the amount of work done, the training to be able to do it well, the efforts for some number of years to market your art and designs, nor the number of years doing it in aggregate.

But it is also not the value nor the quality of the artworks or design either, because right now – it is trendy to have a style that is severely more amateurish than ever before and if you are not producing that – then you are still not “an artist” or a “designer”.

At one time, having a body of work that you have created in art and design was enough to be a calling card that established proficiency and merit at least in claiming the term, artist or designer.

But, now that the internet is so encompassing and the merits of everything so fleeting for the next new thing, that body of work isn’t even required and in fact, may be more of a reason for business backers to not want to invest. It defines nothing of merit that says the skills are there and the works have been done.

Everything is simply about marketing and what the market wants at the moment and whether any of the things you’ve created or designed can fit the trends of today and next week. But, what if you are an American artist and designer with a body of work that proves it to be the case, and have been investing years of study and sacrifice and effort into creating those skills, artworks and designs? Then what?

It might mean something – and there might be a market for it – that is all it means. You still can’t call yourself an artist or a designer unless you are really doing something that has absolutely no relationship to art or the product of art or design – like baking, or being a heating and air conditioning repair person, or a pilot, or a mathematician or only God knows what – or a gardener, or a landscaper (but not a landscape designer, they can’t be called a “designer” in a social context.) It has been bizarre like that for years.

And, people will tell you – just don’t give up, your work is really, really good. And, they’ll say, you just need to sell it and for more people to know about it, but nobody wants to be bothered with seeing it, the excitement of creating it isn’t very exciting to the people who might want to own it and they don’t want to be bothered watching it be created either – especially since it isn’t a funny cat video.

Maybe I just need to do a cat video.

No, I’ve made some cat videos and they were not all that entertaining. Creating art could be more entertaining than the videos I’ve made of it, but it is hard to even want to do that when I already have thousands of artworks I’ve created and designs I’ve made over years and years of creating this body of work – and can’t even realistically call myself an artist because I totally suck at marketing.

And now, people want things that are vastly different with lots of white space, done by somebody in their twenties, not necessarily time consuming or intensely skilled products from it and a style that happens to be trendy at the moment. How do I even tell people about the art I have done or that I could do when there is simply no real way to show it to them or tell them about it where they want to see it and know about it?

I’m sharing this with you to try and help myself think about all of it in more expansive terms rather than as closed off as I feel right now about my work and its opportunities to find the right place in the markets and in the world.

I like it when people buy my work and own it as the special piece in their home or office or vacation house. I like that. If I understood better how to share it with them online and in person – would that be enough for people who might want it and appreciate my art and designs to see them?

One of my little art cards with an ocean painting on it, called Baby Crickets – collectible and each one is a hand painted original work of art. Some of them have been used as designs on my Zazzle store at CricketDiane and Cricket House Studios Art and Design.

cricketdiane, 05-11-2018

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About CricketDiane –

I’ve been creating nearly every day since I was a kid and that is over 50 years. I’ve created in numerous ways in a range that moves from art to problem-solving to inventing, creating music, sculpting and painting to writing and doing various computer / online based projects.

“It is better to make the effort to move forward and release the flow of ideas to work with them and do things creatively, create things and invent and write and make – I definitely know that by experience.” – cricketdiane, 2018

Sell on Amazon

This page on Amazon lists categories in which a seller can sell various things on Amazon without any special permission, including about 20 different categories of products. It also lists the requirements on those categories which do have special requirements for selling them on Amazon.

Approval is not required to sell these products. Sellers may be required to meet special requirements in order to list some products. Both Individual and Professional Sellers can offer products in these categories, except where noted.

However, there seems to be about a $40 a month fee plus other selling fees for selling on Amazon in this way. Haven’t checked all of that yet, but it certainly reaches a vast audience of potential customers.

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Also on Amazon – there are two categories of note to artists and crafters who create handmade products. One of these categories is listed as this, but only available for collectibles and with approval from Amazon for Professional Sellers only. It is about halfway down the list.

Society6

Below you will find the required resolutions for our alternative products. To achieve these exact dimensions you may need to crop your original high-resolution file. However, do not increase the size by resampling in a photo edition program, as this will distort the quality of your work.

THE MOST POPULAR PRINT ON DEMAND SHOPIFY APPS REVIEWED

GearLaunch easily wins the competition for best print on demand partner for Shopify. Best service, quality, consistent fast delivery… no one comes close to GearLaunch. Check out the video as I walk through the installation method to make the integration. Don’t worry, it’s super easy and no technical skill is required whatsoever.

For the most part, Shopify T-shirt fulfillment apps all work the same way, with minor nuances and variations.

After integrating the app and building out some designs, your POD app will sync the designs to your store. When a customer purchases a t-shirt, the order is sent directly to your POD supplier where they print and ship the shirt to your customer.

This all happens automatically behind the scenes without any manual order processing. This allows you to focus on higher value responsibilities like marketing your store to increase traffic, improving conversion rate, increasing average order size, and raising customer lifetime value.

also –

Teelaunch –

Teelaunch has more competitive margins, so you make more money on each sale. This allows you to spend more on marketing, and invest more back into your business to grow faster.

Here is a quick breakdown of margins across a few of Teelaunch’s products:

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Printful + Shopify

Lists the things they offer for print on demand with your designs and they are shipped out of several locations in the US and Europe to arrive to the customers faster (within 3 days mostly.)

White label service: We don’t include any Printful branding when we ship your orders. You’re the star of the show, and we make sure your brand is front and centre with our branding tools, like a free sticker of your logo on every order.

Discounted samples: Order samples of your products for 20% off and free shipping worldwide! See exactly what your customers are getting.

Your end price will depend on what you and your customers think is fair, but we recommend a minimum profit margin of 30%.

Say you’re selling a Gildan 64000 unisex softstyle t-shirt. Your price is $18.00. Our price is $8.95. Subtract our price from yours and you get a profit of $9.05.

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Redbubble

Redbubble was born in 2006 in Melbourne, Australia. The dream was simple. Give independent artists a meaningful new way to sell their creations. Today, we connect over 400k artists and designers across the planet with millions of passionate fans. A brave (and dare we say stylish) new world of self expression.

(and)

Creative? Like money? Open a shop in minutes. For free. Just upload your art and designs and leave the rest to us. We handle all the printing (on over 60 quality products) and shipping to almost anywhere on earth. Ready? Let’s go.

Pricing as low as $9/month

Whether you sell online, on social media, in store, or out of the trunk of your car, Shopify has you covered. Start selling anywhere for just $9/month.

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About CricketDiane –

I’ve been creating nearly every day since I was a kid and that is over 50 years. I’ve created in numerous ways in a range that moves from art to problem-solving to inventing, creating music, sculpting and painting to writing and doing various computer / online based projects.

There are many galleries that have original artworks for sale to their clients and the public. In every city, there are galleries with a variety of focused styles and themes along with those that have a varied selection.

In order to approach these galleries with artwork, you need to do a few simple things and it is possible that you could find one or more that would carry your original artworks.

Portfolio and Frames for Fine Art

Aside from it being helpful to go to an art school or take your art education from a college or university art department program, it is also possible to attend classes and get instruction from a number of other sources and still be an appropriate match to fine art galleries.

Prepare Artwork for Galleries

First, you will need about 20 – 25 art pieces in the same style regardless of the medium used to create them. It helps to enter juried art shows and group fine art shows to add that information to the about your work sheet and bio.

That means, create a body of work such that you can create 20 or more pieces in the same style that is part of it with a theme that is easily recognizable and marketable in the fine art market. It also means to get into group shows with your work and especially, to enter juried shows with some of these pieces or artworks in this style and hopefully win some place ribbons or awards for them.

Write a Bio and About Your Work Page

If any collectors are collecting your work, if there are any prizes you’ve won in juried art shows, if you have been a part of invitation-only art shows – these will be great information to add to your list of credits about your work, as well and go a long way to encourage a fine art gallery to host your work.

Today, the bio and about your work sheet should reflect the most current information about your artwork, the shows where you’ve shown, professional associations where you are a member, collectors who’ve bought your work, ongoing professional development and classes you’ve taken. The artist’s bio and about your work information need to appear on your website, blog and online portfolios.

Photograph Your Work

It takes a lot of work to create the 20 – 25 pieces that form the portfolio elements that you will present to the galleries. These need to be in the same style, even if your body of work also includes other styles that you consider your own and like a lot.

The 20 – 25 pieces that you offer to fine art galleries must be photographed with as true to life colors as possible in as high a resolution as you can get – even 20mpx is available on some point and shoot cameras that are not inhibitively expensive.

Mount and Frame Artworks

Then, these pieces need to be mounted on foam core or bristol board with a neutral ph using archival tape and a framing mat over each one. Typically, these mats are the same color when used for this purpose – all white mats across the 25 pieces or all black.

Each piece of artwork is placed in a clear plastic sleeve that is purchased which is made for this purpose – for portfolios, for large pieces of artworks, or for packaging such as crystal clear packaging envelopes sold in nearly every size.

This set of artworks are placed in a portfolio case which are sold in various sizes and configurations including those for smaller works on paper that look like a very large black bound notebook sized to the artworks’ largest piece.

For watercolor papers that are 22″ x 30″, be sure to get a book or portfolio sized slightly larger and the same is true for the plastic sleeves to hold the work with its mount. An exact fit sized at 22″ x 30″ will not fit and have the extra 1/4″ depth that is taken up dimensionally by the mount and mat.

For canvas artworks, unless they are huge – over 4′ x 4′ or on canvases that are stretched across larger stretchers with the foldover edges painted as part of the work, they need to be framed. That is its own dilemna, since framing is as expensive as it is. Even artworks on paper that you have mounted as described, need to have framing and glass available for each one before the gallery will hang them when they say yes to you. It will be up to you to get that framing done for all of the pieces they accept.

Make an Online Portfolio

After writing the bio and about your work pages, building them into a website for your work, a contact page and portfolio online, get physical print copies of them to hand out with your work at shows, when approaching a gallery owner or curator, or to send by snail mail as needed. Make sure an keep updated copies of these handy in a google doc to grab quickly for emails to galleries and juried fine art shows, too.

The artist’s bio should read more like a quick endpaper description of an author that is commonly used on books, rather than a serious interpretation of why you are an artist. Part of what this bio should do, is be the kind of thing you would want said to others when the gallery owner tells them about who you are and how your work is special and so wonderful that they just need to see it right now.

Things to Include About Your Work

On the “about your work” page you write, it should include –

places your work has been shown

prizes you’ve won at juried shows

education in art and classes you’ve taken

professional associations you belong to in art

community organizations you belong to socially, such as Rotary, Lions’ Club, etc.

collectors and large collections who purchased your artworks

special uses of your artworks for newsletters, magazine covers or stories, posters

any purchase of your artworks / sculptures for the public – site specific installations, etc.

any special groups of artists to which you belong for group shows or studio space

classes you’ve given in art, sculpture, talks and podcasts

Note – remember to always put your name, contact info, email address, cellphone number and website address on every single page of every single paper that any show or gallery staff or art publisher might handle. These pages do end up separated and it will do no good to have a page of your brilliance being seen by someone if they can’t find out who belongs to it and how to get ahold of you easily when it matters.

Know the Galleries You Want to Approach

Once all these pieces are assembled, there are two other critical and important requirements you need to fulfill, both of which are fairly time-consuming – but they are, must-dos.

One must-do, is to check through information about the galleries that are available in the city where you live or the largest city near where you live, or the largest city in your state, as the case may be. And, to check through information about fine art galleries in your genre that are known to be selling those kinds of works frequently and successfully hosting gallery openings and shows dedicated to the kinds of work you do – more or less.

Two – or the second must-do, is to write down and memorize how you will bring an audience to these galleries which they otherwise do not enjoy or want access to getting and have every reason for wanting a way to attract those specific audiences of art buyers or potential art buyers.

Know What Gallery Pays For and What You Pay To Do

Galleries charge a percentage of every sale which can range from a low of 20% that is rare, to 60% for anyone whose work is completely unknown. Any gallery, agent or other avenue that charges to review your work for possible inclusion, is a sure sign that it is not a valid entry point into the marketing of your work to the fine art communities.

There are other costs too, that artists are commonly asked to cover, including the costs of hosting an opening night gala showing the works, posters or prints for the artist to sign that are part of the show of your work, promotional materials printing and mailing costs, and any other promotional costs of letting the public know about your work being at this gallery, (these usually extend beyond the show of your work, if the gallery continues carrying your works).

Aside from those costs, other promotional efforts for your work and the initial showing of your work are commonly yours to do. Many artists have found ways to get their artwork reviewed by Art in America and ArtForum or other fine art magazines.

Other Ways to Promote Your Work Must Be Used Too

Some artists have found ways to get a feature story about their work and its debut in a gallery or in the marketplace covered by these and other fine art publications.

Wikipedia has a list of them, found here – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_art_magazines which you can use to gather information about what is selling in the fine art markets, what is wanted as far as popular styles and themes, which galleries are having group shows where it may be possible to get an early entrance into the gallery’s show opportunities, and also to find many gallery addresses, info and contacts.

Regardless, promotion for your work today is almost totally yours to do and that includes sending press releases and doing other promotional types of work. It can be podcasts, write-ups in local papers or newsletters of community organizations and even those of art groups, hosting seminars or workshops, being on talk radio and tv shows – all of those things.

And, it is up to you to do things like sending postcards out to those who have bought your work or who have shown an interest in it, those who have supported your work with help or funding and those you want to interest in seeing your work to possibly buy it or support it.

Possibilities of Art Publishers / Limited Edition Prints

Fine art markets have art publishers specific to it which you can also pursue and that includes limited edition prints and illustrations, as well as other types of fine art publications. The costs of limited edition print runs can be difficult to cover unless an investor is found who will back part of the costs and you can show the popularity of your original fine art image you expect to be able to sell at a good price, if the run is made.

Many fine artists are engaging in these limited edition print runs for their works that have shown some popular demand and it has been a very normal part of doing fine art in a business-like way since about the 1980’s.

Remember, however, that fine art publishing houses that are legitimate – do not require the artists and illustrators to put up money for the limited edition run. The making a print as a limited edition independently of the fine art publishers, normally requires that the artist and possible a co-investor or partner, put up the money to print the edition, package and market it.

When an art publisher makes a deal with you to publish your work, they are negotiating for certain rights to profit from the work you created and to do so either with you – or to buy those rights in some measure for some period of time, from you. Suffice it to say, you should be getting money – not paying it out, because they are in the business of making their money from these images that were not created by them and do not belong to them.

One other note, aside from having your own website and possibly a blog about your art, there are portfolio platforms online that are amazing which will host your portfolio of artworks, so the public can see it and gallery owners can see it from there – long before you can get an appointment for the gallery to view your portfolio in person.

Gather as Much Information As Possible About Galleries for Your Artworks

However, that does bring up an important and last point – once you find a number of galleries that have work in the same neighborhood of focus as yours – then it is time to get online with their websites and get more information about them.

After that, it is time to do some phone calls, emails or response forms on their website to ask for them to see your portfolio. Some galleries have their requirements and process online – it used to be, send slides but now those can be sent as email attachments provided the photos of your work are as clear and color-true to the works as possible.

Every major city in the world have galleries as well as all the big US cities – but they are still selling to a demographic that is small and specific. Some galleries in certain US cities like Washington, D.C. may favor almost entirely 18th century work with only a few contemporary styles being acceptable within the market niche they are serving of political, law, lobbying and government offices.

Other places may want predominantly ocean paintings or nautical art, sailing yachts and big ships on stormy waves. And, remember that what was avant-garde a week ago, or a month ago, or a year ago now is far removed from what may be considered that way today and right this minute.

And, despite what anyone may tell you in the arts communities – most galleries don’t necessarily want the avant-garde anyway, unless that is specific to their business model and marketing plan – or if that is what their known customer base is hungry to see, to have and to own.

Ding – ding goes the cash register in the old stores from Five & Dime stores to old grocery stores every time there is a sale made. Even in today’s stores, as the register drawer opens and closes, there is a plastic swush that is is recognizable with every sale. In art, you don’t get that.

I’m thinking of putting a bell somewhere to note when someone buys one of my artworks or designs on the products being made through Zazzle – but it would probably be pretty annoying after awhile – both when it rings and when it doesn’t for awhile.

Sales in art is not based entirely on subjective criteria. However, it can be noted that in many cases, art is sold as part of something else (inclusively.) The designs and artwork put on products in big retail stores are already made into whatever you are buying and when you go to have a tshirt made or business cards – art is partly included in the price or charged for being done as part of the print job. Meaning, the art is not purchased separately in many cases, though it is there providing sellable visuals that make the product desirable.

Architecture firms pay artists to visually conceptualize the buildings, public spaces and homes they intend to build. Landscape designers either hire an artist to render their plans for landscaping so the customer can understand it or do that themselves. Magazing rely heavily on illustration and have both in-house artists work for them and hire illustrators specific to articles whose work they already know.

There are art publishers that publish limited edition prints and those who mass produce for the interior decor industry where most, if not all of the artwork seen in retail stores and local frame shops at the mall are bought for resale.

After a tremendous number of years making art, selling art and learning about selling art, it is something to be said that I am numb to it all now. I’ve watched brilliant sculptors of our time go into ice carving because the public wanted that and not big sculptures for their homes and businesses. I’ve watched ridiculous things being made using materials that are absurd to get the public’s attention whether sculpting in butter or hand-rendering famous works of art on tiny chocolate squares.

It is a strange time. Nothing surprises the public anymore to the extent that it has become a joke played upon by advertisers trying to find something more ridiculous than the last to get the audience to speak about it, remember it or repeat any of it on social media or around the water cooler.

At one time in the fine art world during the last forty years, artists have castrated themselves and filmed it, calling that performance art – only to be ignored anyway and their work denied by the apathy of the public and then committing suicide over it. That doesn’t even make the news at the time it was done and certainly wouldn’t today.

But, in the midst of this strange landscape, there is more creativity and imagination, wonderful artworks and artistic endeavors than ever with a vast array of amazing types and avenues of interpretation. It is staggering. And, the public is mostly not buying any of it regardless. Nor, supporting it. Nor desiring to be supportive of any of it, for that matter.

As Banksy came through New York City and made his secret tagging project with its social messages, he did everything right according to the public relations playbook and still barely had a couple sales of his work in person when he set up to sell it in Central Park before he went back home. The news coverage and social media, the public’s interest in it didn’t matter – they still didn’t want to buy it from the artist. That says a lot.

Experts call it the “gig economy” where it used to be called freelancing or making something and then selling it directly to the customer. And, today much of that is done online with large platforms delivering what seems like opportunity to those who make things, create things, craft, sculpt, do art, write, do music, invent, and have skills in those areas.

Well, okay – gig economy. And, building a brand. And, becoming an expert in your field by knowledge and skills marketed effectively online. Those can work despite the walls of competition coming at you every given moment.

But, when I wrote the post on my old blog the other day about Toys R Us going into bankruptcy when they enjoy a 15% share of the toy market – and how it happened, and as I keep watching people at the top of our government spending millions of dollars to go on a golf weekend or take trips at our expense or plan a $50 million dollar parade while my sales give me none of those things – it occurs to me that creating anything is not how money is being made necessarily. And, probably not for some time now – like years upon years.

Where someone like Thomas Kincaid was able to bring his art vision to the public marketplace successfully, millions of others did not and were not given the access to even take that road successfully at all. It is as if, for one to get in the door – 500,000 or more did not. The odds are worse than playing bingo.

So here is what I wrote a couple days ago after doing the research on why Toys R Us is being dismantled because of a private equity group who bought them in 2005 using “equity” from their portfolios of investing other people’s money and leveraging 80% of the price which was then charged to Toys R Us to pay off ultimately destroying them as they threw $400 million out the door every year to service loans which shouldn’t have belonged to them since they were made to purchase the company in the first place.

That is a long winded sentence and I was about to change it – but damn, that’s exactly what they did. It can’t be said in two or three word sentences.

So, rather than tell you all about how to make a great art business and share with you what all I’ve learned about it, from fine art to illustration, art publishing and surface design, showing in art festivals to showing in galleries, to the amazing online opportunities which are mostly work and not really opportunities – I’m going to share what I’ve learned about really making money – if you’re going to –

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The Anatomy of Business in America –

Open a firm. Make it an LLC and get a nice address for it, even if it is shared.

Print a bunch of slick looking brochures and paperwork. Buy some nice desks and expensive chairs.

Hire some men and dress them in very expensive suits.

Get people to give you their money to invest. Borrow against the money they give you to invest more than you have available.

Charge them for investing their money and every time the investments are handled, traded, bought or sold.

Use their money and portfolios as collateral to buy up an existing company in the US – one that has been around for years.

Borrow 80% – 100% of the price the company purchase would be by using these other people’s money and portfolios as you “equity”collateral on the loan promising the company will payoff the loan from its cash earnings inflow

Pay yourself several million dollars for making the deal by taking it from the company you are buying.

Put the entire purchase price of the company you are buying into debt owed by that company and not you and not your company even though you did the borrowing to get ownership of it.

The collateral wasn’t yours, the equity stake put up never moved anywhere and is paid off by the company being bought plus paying for its own purchase by you without any of your money ever being used.

Rob all the cash resources and assets that you can possibly liquidate from the company you now own without ever having to pay anything to get it.

Charge management fees to the company you’ve bought while you dismantle its assets and cash diverting them into your pockets and those of your firm.

Force the company you now own to borrow from you and from your firm some of its new loan money that will satisfy paying off your debt for having bought it, so they are effectively paying you interest on the money you did not actually borrow to buy the company in the first place which is now owed by the company you “bought” who is paying for its purchase price.

After 2 – 5 years of bleeding all the cash possible from the company, either A.) sell it by taking it public and then finding a buyer for it to cash you out, or B.) going into bankruptcy as the company is then required to pay you again three times over in the bankruptcy process.

Get payouts again from any credit default swaps you took out on the loans your firm made to the company that you forced the company to take to pay the money off that you “borrowed” to “buy” them. Make sure you get hundreds of millions from the bankruptcy of the company while its vendors, landlords contractors and many other creditors get nothing.

Make sure executives are given big fat bonuses by the bankruptcy court because they are your friends and any pension funds or other employee benefit funds are depleted so they get nothing but a layoff notice, (or not even that.)

Enjoy the hundreds of millions of dollars that now are yours which you never built in the first place through hard work, gaining market share, challenging the competition or any other basic tenets of capitalism and market based economics.

Do the same thing to as many companies as you can while continuing to run your firm convincing people to give you their money to invest and charging them while using their money and not yours to be the “equity” / collateral to buy these companies and do the same thing to them to bleed them of all cash resources which you didn’t earn.

Tell everybody how great you are and how nobody else in the United States is worth anything unless they are like you.

Deny you put tens of thousands of families in economic hardship by taking their jobs away, destroying their communities by shutting down large employers and cutting the income from contractors and landlords who had provided real services and goods to the company. And, run for public office.

cricketdiane, 03-13,18

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Well, that’s it – that is how money has been being made in America since the 80’s and otherwise, you could –

Go to an art school, get a portfolio of work together in your own style however many years and dollars that will take, if a gallery will take you on because your work is already selling and has an audience it brings to the gallery.

Or become an illustrator – but first, go check those books in the library that are put out every year of illustrators and understand that the competition is well placed to already get the work where you would need to get those opportunities. And, spend the years and money to get really good at illustration with your own style that is distinctive but not too distinctive and that fits the marketplace but is different enough to be marketable.

Or, paint and craft a bunch of items, frame every piece and make packaging for it all, lug it out to the art fairs and festivals, pay them a bunch in fees, sit with the work for three days while watching people pass your booth to go buy something from a wholesaler that is in the booth three over from yours on their way to buy funnel cakes and watch clogging.

Or, find a way for your work to get in the big fine arts shows and be judged worthwhile – Basel in Florida, the Armory Show in New York – places like that, but know that it won’t guarantee even one more sale even if everything you show there does sell.

Or, put your work online with art on products made as they are ordered at one of the print-on-demand sites for art prints or products, like Zazzle – but remember that once it is online, no one will believe you are an artist or illustrator or anything except an affiliate marketer for the platform even though you are the one designing the product’s visually appealing elements or doing the artworks that are going on them. And, remember that most of the competition there will be using art they have purchased from a clip art service like shutterstock or istock, a freemium service or something that was illustrated by professionals over 75 years ago that they are allowed to use now in the public domain.

Or, try to get licensing deals for your work through the conventions at LIMA and Surtex for 2-d surface art and designs where for about $8,000 and several days paying to fly there and stay out of town with those expenses on top of it, a few artists and designers actually have been known to get licensing deals from the separate independent artist space they provide. Although, a couple years ago one of the big paper product and office supply companies had a licensing employee that noted, they rarely go over into that area except to see what they’ll be up against and the trends to take back to their in-house art department.

Or, go online with video content about painting and how-to / DIY. You might want to check what those look like right now. It would be surprising if anything hasn’t already been done well by 14,000 video content makers already but hey, it could happen.

Or, go into other absurd uses of materials that haven’t been done yet – Easter peeps have been made into arches and other sculptural art, clear packaging tape has been used to make sculptures of people life size, butter has been carved into life-sized pigs, already chewed chewing gum has become a palette for a visual artist to use to make “paintings” of an entire group of things and I think one artist from Asia came to New York and made a two or three story tall sugar sculpture in a warehouse. But, it can’t be that’s all the absurdity that can be created, I’m sure.

Or, you could plan, build and locate somewhere, kinetic art that moves and does things, light art sculptures for the light festivals, or 3D projection art that is put on buildings for the light festivals, do massive building sized murals like those being done all over the world, sidewalk art that looks like you could walk into the sidewalk, steampunk style art that uses all sorts of gizmo pieces put together – but recently, it was a virtual rose made on a blockchain platform that made a million dollars – not any of those other things.

Or, you could invent something – but I keep remembering this:

This man finally got $25 million for his invention but not till having fought for years in courts for it – and the company never had to steal it that way to begin with –

Before Michael Powell came along, Home Depot employees were slicing off fingers left and right, resulting in nearly $1 million a year in worker’s compensation claims. But Powell devised a simple guard for protecting workers’ digits and let the company test it out in eight stores in the area. The trial was a huge success—and cut worker’s compensation claims down to $7000 the following year—but instead of ponying up Powell’s proposed $2000 per device, Home Depot just went ahead and fabricated copies of the saw guards without Powell’s consent.

Nope, as much as I’ve told everyone including myself that the way to help America is to invent, to build, to create and to make things – that isn’t what has provided people the money in this country in my lifetime. Not even building a business offers that anymore, not unless it is the kind of firm described above in the Anatomy of Business in America that I wrote.

As many of the inventions made by Americans have ended up the property of foreign nations because companies sold them or corporate raiders sold them or through the bankruptcy process described above – the novelties of a company are taken, it is hard to say that building, inventing, creating, harnessing new things, or even creating new art – is at all worthwhile. I still do it, you may still do it, but the chances are – it will get none of the money that corporate raiders get through that corrupt process being done every single day.

And, it won’t get the kind of money that is given respect and freedom to live in this country. The United States does not honor its inventors and creatives as some other nations do, instead treating all of us with derision and contempt.

It never changes.

cricketdiane, 03-15-18

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In the event that you do come up with something new, remember – you are up against SALY (Same As Last Year), before ever getting your foot in the door to sell or license any of it.

If it is new, it isn’t proven in sales and track record – so nobody wants to chance whether it will sell or not. That’s why 90% of the tshirts being sold and worn by most people have nothing on them – just a solid color. Strange isn’t it.

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About CricketDiane –

I’ve been creating nearly every day since I was a kid and that is over 50 years. I’ve created in numerous ways in a range that moves from art to problem-solving to inventing, creating music, sculpting and painting to writing and doing various computer / online based projects.

“It is better to make the effort to move forward and release the flow of ideas to work with them and do things creatively, create things and invent and write and make – I definitely know that by experience.” – cricketdiane, 2018

Every so often, it is obvious that the page in front of us, the canvas or the computer screen awaiting words, is blank and speaks blankly back to us without any flow at all. It is called, writers’ block or creativity block or artists’ block or inventors’ block. You get the idea – it is where nothing happens creatively and writing or creating if forced, simply isn’t even worth having made the effort – because it isn’t working.

CricketDiane 2018 Photography NYC Doors to express what writers block and creative block is like for this article about unleashing creativity.

So, rather than have that creative block last on and on, here are seven techniques that can help end it and re-awaken the flow of creativity, innovating, inventing, making, writing and creating –

dirty the page

Well, it doesn’t happen as badly with a blank page that gets nearly anything painted on it or written on it. This is the old, start somewhere adage and the flow will start up again. So, write something down, put the date, signature the top of the page or bottom of the canvas, use the weather or sky as an excuse to start putting in something until the rest starts to flow.

Dirty the page or dirty the canvas, dirty the work area with some possible materials then shove them out of the way to the side and start something with a few pieces to play with how they fit together and what those pieces might do.

My favorite for writing is – It was a dark and stormy night, written on the page. Then it can be about anything but there is somewhere already something on the page or computer screen, so I might as well write something to go with it – usually about something else and then I take the dark and stormy night part out in editing.

For art and drawing, get a stack of paper or small canvases or aceo sized cards and start putting some paint on them. Unremarkable or valuable – doesn’t matter, stick some paint on it. My favorite is to start with the sky or do paint or draw a rose to see if I can do it better than last time until the creative ideas start flowing naturally again. It works.

play in the paint – play with the words

Let go of what other people think and whether it will sell or what might be salable (sell-able) or marketable and simply play with it awhile.

Dripping paint on a surface is one way of starting to play in the paint and it is easy to direct once there is something to work with to move around. But, it doesn’t have to be worth a damn or something worth anything to someone else.

Occasionally, it is more valuable to experience the joy of playing in the paint again, playing with the act of inventing and making again, playing with the words to enjoy the art of writing again. Maybe it is always important to do that and to say this is renewing, is an understatement, especially once marketing and sales become part of it all.

let the emotions fly

Give voice and artistic expression to the anger, frustration, disappointment, sadness, boredom, grief, sorrow, love, hate, hope, joy, pettiness, annoyance – whatever it may be and put them into a written dialogue, or into the paint of the painting, or into the music as you create it (try to record it by the way), or into the words for a song. Make comedy material with the feelings, sculpt them into the clay or invent them into something that expresses it.

Letting the emotions fly into these creative formats is done without judgment or hindrance and the most amazing things are created with those emotions. Do another painting or another writing until it is done, or half-way or two-thirds – it doesn’t matter. Letting the emotions go into the work is what helps unblock writers’ block and artists’ block.

Just keep making another painting or music or invention or writing until the emotions are gone or have changed, become relieved or the feeling of satisfaction comes that makes it obvious that the feelings and emotions have been fully expressed.

what could be done with it – if

Start with a flower or something, (nearly anything), and what could be done with a flower or any other basic everyday item or group of items. This is the magic question, IF. If the flower were in a field of flowers, if it were a painting of a still life, if it was a flower in someone’s hand, if the wind has blown the flower’s petals off except for one, etc.

IF – is powerful tool to awaken the arsenal of possibilities, creativity and the flow of creating. So, start with something and write or paint or draw quick sketches of what could be done with that flower or that thing or those things. Whatever the theme, the mind can dance in and out of the possibilities without anything but playfulness about it, IF it is allowed to do so and called upon. That is what this does.

There is no way to see how this works except to try it. For me, when I was writing this, I started with a flower because I like flowers. There are a lot of them in my art. So, I wrote something to put here as an example, The flower stands tall in the soft nestled grasses sparkling with the bright drops from the summer rain. But, I can also see that flower in a bright kitchen window behind the sink where someone, probably me – is washing dishes and humming a bit of a song. Well, those could be leads to other places for writing – but not required.

It is only important to write down, paint, draw or speak into some video or recording of some kind for this to yield a flow where it had been blocked before. The same is true of inventing and making – start with a flower or something. What could it be made from? What if it’s like this? What if an entire gizmo were to be shaped like a flower to catch the sun or to catch rain from the roof to dispense it later across the yard? or whatever the theme or item or group of things you’ve chosen. It doesn’t have to be a flower.

what could be the story – idea cards

One handy thing to use for going around writers’ block and creative block are story idea cards that you can make yourself and some are available every so often in the marketplace for writers or designers or kids. These are used by famous authors according to some books about writing. I don’t know which ones used them but I’ve used them and they are the handiest tool to change writers block or artistic block into a flowing river of story avenues and worthwhile ideas while awakening the excitement of pursuing them.

Idea story cards are 3 x 5 cards or slips of paper, post-it notes or pieces of business card sized cardstock with ideas written on them that generate elements of possibilities for a story, a piece of art, a song, a piece of music, a craft piece, a sculpture or an invention. They can have problems to solve for the world or scenes and characters, riffs for a song or dynamic action sequences.

Using the idea story cards is easy, making them is fun and they offer questions as well as ideas like – who planted the flower, what is the scene around it, what part could it play in the story, does someone interact with the flower and use it, is it part of a bigger story about the garden where the flower is planted?- as in the flower example I used above.

You can make the scenes, the ideas on the story cards in different ways depending on the kinds of writing you do or the kind of inventing and innovating you want to do. These are a great way to end writers’ block, creative block and artistic / inventors’ block. The idea story cards give a place to start and a way to move the pieces of a story or invention around to play with it and that’s its whole purpose to ending writers’ block.

cricketdiane, 03-05-2018

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About CricketDiane –

I’ve been creating nearly every day since I was a kid and that is over 50 years. I’ve created in numerous ways in a range that moves from art to problem-solving to inventing, creating music, sculpting and painting to writing and doing various computer / online based projects.

I’ve created and created and created, been blocked creatively on occasion and come through it to create and create and create again. I’d say that makes me an expert in this – and some of these techniques for ending creative block and writers’ block will likely work better for you than others, but what I can say about it is this – getting creativity to flow unhindered is well worth the effort.

Writers’ block and creativity being blocked, hurts and makes everything else harder too. It is better to make the effort to move forward and release the flow of ideas to work with them and do things creatively, create things and invent and write and make – I definitely know that by experience.